Another retrospective application for Inpost locker refused

The latest locker installation to be refused planning permission is at Cleasby Road in Menston, with planning officers saying the lockers are “harmful to the visual amenity of the location.”

It is the latest in a series of retrospective applications by the company for lockers that were already in place – but a spokesperson for Inpost said they were unable to disclose why permission was not sought first.

Parcel lockers are an increasingly common sight on Britain’s streets. They allow people to drop off and pick up packages at convenient locations, any time of the day, without the need to visit a post office.

The locker on Cleasby Road is located outside a Post Office, and the company’s retrospective planning application says it was installed last August.

It is 2.425m tall and 3.050m wide.

There had been one objection to the application, raising concerns that the locker was installed without permission and that it led to parking on a busy corner.

Refusing the application, planning officers said: “The parcel locker unit is situated to the front of an existing long established retail unit; however, the street scene remains to be predominantly residential in nature.

“Where there are retail units evident in the vicinity, the units have shopfronts that are less cluttered and more understated in materials and colours palette. Their appearance is more in keeping with the traditional character of the village.

“The size, position and form of the parcel locker unit is deemed to be at odds with the prevailing character and quality of the area. The appearance exacerbates its dominance and emphasises the incongruous nature of the development in this setting, to the detriment of visual amenity.

“It is acknowledged that this type of development is becoming an increasingly accepted feature within the streetscape up and down the country as consumer shopping habits and retail operations are changing.

“However, this need is not outweighed by the identified harm to the visual amenity of the local built environment.”

The decision follows other refusals of retrospective Inpost lockers in recent months.

In March a retrospective application for an Inpost locker outside the Co-Op on High Street, Queensbury, was refused.

Officers said the lockers: “Detract from the established traditional appearance and heritage significance of the Conservation Area resulting in a discordant and visually intrusive element within the street scene.”

And last year an application to retain a locker on Bradford Road in Shipley was refused after planners described it as an “alien and incongruous feature.”

Other retrospective applications have been approved, including one on Wilsden Road in Harden and another on Saltaire Road in Shipley.

Inpost have also recently submitted a retrospective application to keep a locker outside a convenience store on Saffron Drive. A decision on that application is expected later this month.

The Telegraph & Argus contacted Inpost to ask why several of their lockers had been installed before planning permission was granted.

A spokesperson said: “This isn't information we're able to disclose.”